Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Ornithischia
Family: Hadrosauridae
Subfamily: Lambeosaurinae
Genus: Corythosaurus
Species: C. casuarius

Corythosaurus was a large hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous, about 75 million years ago. Capable of reaching a length of 10m, Corythosaurus shares various traits with the other hadrosaurids, such as the "duckbill" snout and batteries of grinding teeth. It is distinguished from other members of the family by the rounded crest located on the top of the skull. The purpose of the crest has been a subject of intense debate over the years, but the discovery of various air passages within it have led scientists to conclude that it may have been used for some form of vocalization. The size of the crest may have been related to the gender or age of the animal.

Type Species: Corythosaurus casuarius

Brown, B. (1914). Corythosaurus casuarius, a new crested dinosaur from the Belly River Cretaceous, with provisional classification of the family Trachodontidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 33, pp. 559–565.

Locality:

Belly River Formation, Alberta, Canada.

Scientific Resources:

Weishampel, DB. (1981). Acoustic Analyses of Potential Vocalization in Lambeosaurine Dinosaurs (Reptilia: Ornithischia). Paleobiology, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 252-261.

Maryańka, T; and Osmólska, H. (1979). Aspects of hadrosaurian cranial anatomy. Lethaia, Vol. 12, Issue 3, pp. 265-273.

Organ, CL. (2006). Biomechanics of ossified tendons in ornithopod dinosaurs. Paleobiology, Vol. 32, Issue 4, pp. 652-665.